The Only Alliance
by notesonlife
Summary: AU. A black leather bound sketchbook binds her to him, and breaks her against him. NejiTen.
1. The Academy

_For the F.O.I.L. challenge. This is a doozy, and if anyone has read this on my LJ, it's a bit different, because I decided to actually edit it this time. I've decided to break it up into two or three parts. _

* * *

**The Only Alliance**

The first time she meets Neji, she is dragging a large suitcase (it is the only one she can afford, and she needs to have everything for the new school year) through the rickety door of the train.

She has studied hard and is accepted into Konoha Academy, one of the finest boarding schools in the city, so she cannot mess up and get kicked out of such a prestigious honor. So far she hasn't seen any other middle-classed students like her, since the funding of the institution is from wealthier families, so only rich children are sent to it. But there are those few who receive the scholarship, only a handful in each grade, and Tenten is unnerved by the intimidating air, even just by looking at the train and the people around her coming out with servants from expensive cars.

No one bothers to help her with her luggage, which is stuck in the door, not even the men that work at the station (who are too busy helping those with money and servants than a lonely girl without a clue), so she wipes the growing sweat from her brow and gives one heavy heave. The weight of the bag overwhelms her and she is thrown backwards into the compartment door behind her. She rubs her sore behind, only for the firm leverage that supports her back to instantly disappear, making her fall flat on the floor, her back pressing uncomfortably to the ridge of the sliding metal.

The boy before her frowns, stepping away from her and she instantly pulls herself up, grabbing the handle of her luggage and apologizing, daring not to meet his eyes. Startling grey eyes stare straight at her uniform and the buns in her hair and he merely asks if she is Tenten.

She then realizes that this boy is Hyuuga Neji, a member of one of the greatest familial run corporations. The Hyuuga corporation runs everything behind the scenes of all of the city, and this boy probably has more pedigree in his pinky than she will ever have in her whole life.

Then a flash of green and black hair instantly pulls her in and she is thrown against the wooden seat with the bright beam and bushy brows of _Maito Gai_ blinding her eyes.

* * *

She understands how the whole system the school runs by through Neji, while Gai-sensei is busy scouring for their final member. She is assigned Group 13, the groups specifically designed for an irrationally small student to instructor ratio, only three to a group. The crazy man in green is their sensei, who as Neji quotes, 'an unbearable nuisance to society', and who will be teaching them everything they need to learn.

More than capable teachers have sent their students to be the best of the best. Konoha Academy has boasted many accomplishments in their students, the future leaders, successful businessmen, incredible actors, and ingenious artists of the Fire nation. Of course, the sensei assigned to the three students that balance each other out, and balance the teacher out, making a precise equilibrium.

Neji does not find the latter fact to be true in this case, and Tenten can't help but agree, noting the insanity of their sensei, and how nothing can balance that man out.

That is, until Gai-sensei comes in with what looks like a less insane and younger version of himself, a boy named Rock Lee, who has dyslexia and who has already been brainwashed by Gai. Neji's resolution deepens, but Tenten only gets more aware and suddenly astounded by the cleverness used to make this trio.

* * *

The first time she touches Neji, it is a sudden push into him. He flinches and she instantly draws back, nervous.

It is completely by accident, and it is only because Lee has knocked into her as the train is curling around the corner, throwing her back onto him. They are moving farther away from the center of the city, homeland for most of the students here, to the outskirts of their state. She gives out a little yelp, grabbing his black blazer between clenched fingers. She flushes away and Neji clears his throat, straightening the hem of his jacket, and looks away, out of the window at the rolling hills.

Later, she can't help but smile at that tiny awkward moment, lying in her bed in the darkness.

* * *

When she realizes that she practically lives with these two boys and their teacher, she's staring at their section of the dormitory. Her room is a double her old bedroom at home with the edges of torn posters on the ceiling and white-washed walls. There is a beautifully crafted desk, an armoire and a dresser, and a comfortable large bed to the side.

It seems more than enough to fit all for her meager necessities, she doesn't have enough clothes to fit the spacious armoire. There is an open window to a balcony, and the room looks like a suite, however she doesn't believe there is anything more blank and sullen than this room.

She pulls out the gift she receives from her parents before she left from her bag, a large leather-bound sketchbook with crisp paper and a beautiful set of sketching equipment, on her desk, and it feels more personal, although the sketchbook is blank and the equipment is unopened. She doesn't know if she'll ever ruin the fresh slate of the book, leaving it to look merely like a decoration. She doesn't know if she'll have anything mind-etching to draw onto the fresh paper.

After she has unpacked it seems more comfortable, but the walls still stare back at her, and she stares back at them, unsure of what to do until Lee comes in to talk. Their conversation is about their dreams and goals, personal beliefs and inspirations.

No matter how goofy and dumb he looks, Lee is actually a sensitive person, and can actually understand her feelings. She tells him she wants to be an artist and as successful as the once-doctor, now principal-figure, Tsunade-sama, and he truly respects it. They also come from similar middle-class backgrounds, and they actually live only a few city blocks away from each other, and now, they live across the hall. Tenten knows that Lee will become very important to her, and it scares her later on when he becomes _too_ important.

* * *

Tenten sees Neji fight only twice, and the first time, it is unexpected. An upperclassman places a hand on her, a snarl on his lips at the sight of a _commoner_, ready to tear her pride into pieces.

Before he could lunge, Tenten sees a black flash, and her eyes catch a roundhouse kick across the head, making the older boy sprawl over on the tiles. Neji looks down disgustedly, muttering how worthless and pathetic it is to fight a girl.

The older boy growls up at him, arrogance overriding the fact that this is a Hyuuga, and aims a heavy punch at him. Neji's moves are graceful and cruel, for he dodges, and slams his fist in a short left, blooding the other's mouth. Tenten shudders, watching the upperclassman lay awkwardly on the floor.

Neji merely states a low _pesk_ cannot beat a Hyuuga. Tenten somehow takes this comment personally.

Even if the realistic part of her mind says she should scold Neji, because she can take care of herself, Neji glances back at her before walking past, ordering her to follow by merely speaking her name. She apologizes to the bleeding thing in front of her, turns, and runs after him.

* * *

When Tenten learns about Neji's past, it makes complete sense for the reason of his stoic and cruel demeanor. His father died in what is presumed a tragic accident, but Neji is sure that it is of his uncle's doing, his brother's twin, to inherit more power over the corporation. His mother left soon after, too consumed in grief, so he grew up an orphan under the constant strain and pressure of his uncle, watching the future heiress fail miserably, but who will still inherit the company even though he can do thrice a better job.

And to cry to the world that he is worthless, there is the stitching of a lower insignia on the collar of his shirt, only noticeable upon close inspection, because otherwise, the dominant genes in his beautiful eyes overrides this fact. He cannot remove the stitching nor the prejudice, for it is a barrier around him, shielding him from getting close to anyone, reminding him of the cruelties of his birth.

He blames it on fate that he cannot change the past so it affects his future, that he is rigidly bound to what has previously been set to him. She feels wet tear tracks on her cheeks, not because she is moved by his story, but because she pities how narrow-minded and closed he is.

His life is a tragedy, and as Lee passes her a tissue, she knows she must help him fix it. It is this night that Tenten carefully opens to the first page of her still unused sketchbook, and puts pencil on paper.

* * *

A year passes by, and Neji opens up more to them, and she learns that Neji is expert at certain aspects, beating Lee and her in practically anything, living up to any and all expectations, and speaking monologues about his life, but she listens to every word when Lee and Gai-sensei tune out, because this way, she knows which approach to take to help him. She doesn't make much progress, it seems, since his beliefs still hinder him, and she can only draw.

It is the only tool that Neji does not possess, because as Gai-sensei puts it, Neji has very little creativity. Tenten cannot help but feel proud at the fact that she can do something better than Neji, but he only reasons that Lee can be a better idiot all he wants.

Tenten only smiles, mentally tracing the curve of his jaw as he speaks, to emphasize her drawings, which are feverish and quick sketches.

It becomes one of the few secrets she keeps from Group 13, and the only secret she keeps from Neji.

* * *

When introduced to Group 7, under Kakashi-sensei, she doubts that the lowerclassmen live up to Kakashi-sensei, who is Gai-sensei's greatest rival, the way Neji is Lee's. She often is reminded of their score, with Gai in the lead by one, and she finds it incredibly worthless, unlike the struggle between her teammates.

She glances at the loud annoying blonde, the ditzy girl with bubblegum pink hair, and the moody boy, famous for being the last Uchiha, and is unimpressed. They lack any kind of potential.

This holds true until Naruto defeats him in a fight, leaving himself with broken bones but Neji with a broken pride. Naruto has lifted the first shard of his heart, and Tenten cannot be anymore grateful.

After the fight, Sakura performs amazing medical techniques, gaining the attention of Tsunade-sama. She offers to personally teach the girl, and Tenten's heart wrenches and twists harder than it ever has.

Her gaze shifts towards Sasuke, who has always been cute and so mysterious, and she ends up sketching him into her drawing pad. A small crush forms for the last Uchiha, and Neji and Lee never fail to notice it, but they speak little.

Tenten only designates a few pages of her sketchbook for Sasuke, because she knows that _her_ group will be center stage, because they are her family.

* * *

She realizes that after Konoha Academy is over, they will never see each other again because of their different dreams. Third year begins entrance exams, and a flurry of stressful tests and essays and applications.

She knows she wants to be an artist, the way she sharpens her pencils with knives and carves the wood with metal. She knows Lee wants to remain at the school like Gai-sensei, his flashy appearance as the Second Beautiful Green Beast of the Academy. And she knows more than she knows what Lee and even what she wants is that Neji wants to, hell, he _will go_ to the renowned Fire University, where only those directly associated with the mayor himself or those incredible geniuses can go.

She doesn't share these feelings of despair with either Neji or Lee, and hopes that they can spend every moment together before their last.

* * *

She finds herself truly alone with Neji for more than just a few moments, she spots him in the courtyard after the entrance examinations. Many people go into the courtyard, diverting it from its original goal, peace and quiet of this inner sanctuary. However today, everyone is back in the dorms but she wants to relieve her mind by walking the empty hallways.

She walks in, silently, peering over at his still form. He is asleep. She gazes at him longer, the pale eyelids closed, both hands folded over his lap. It looks like he is meditating, but Tenten knows he's not -- he's sleeping.

She inches closer before ever so quietly joining to sit down across from him, her limbs moving as stealthily as she can. His eyes flutter open when she leans over to shake him after she has settled down. He looks at her and frowns and she sheepishly explains her predicament.

He stands after a moment, looking down at her, and says they should go back. The walk towards the dorm building is insufferable, and she shivers in the cold. She closes her eyes, dreading the coming exam for getting into the art college. Then she can feel a heavy warmth around her shoulders, and looks up to see his black blazer around her shoulders.

That night, she draws again, and the drawings (three, she drew that night) are utterly intimate, incredibly personal.

* * *

Despair overcomes all her senses when they are packing up and leaving, not for summer vacation, but forever. She stares at the walls, still blank but now less lonely, and looks back at the sketchbook, worn in from constant use, only stubs for her set of pencils.

She thumbs through it, and memories flood back to her, the emotions she feels that she hides in these drawings. Most of them just speak of a certain event, like when Lee broke his jaw, or when Lee and Tenten visited Neji over the summer. She knows this will be a useful tool and inspiration for further artwork.

But before she knows it, she's running towards Neji's room, knocking frantically at the door, and when it opens, she thrusts her only secret into his hands, her fingers pressed against the back of his palms. She rambles incoherently, that she wants him to have it.

He steps back to let her in, and moves to lean against the armoire. She gazes at him, now almost eighteen, long lanky frame and dark hair that covered parts of his face.

When he opens the book, his expression seems to harden, unreadable but strong, and she feels instantly uneasy. Her heart plummets as she glances down at the sketchbook, the first picture a portrait of what she views as Neji as a child. There are shadows in his eyes, and he stares back at the both of them, childhood innocence lost, and Tenten begins to feel humiliated, exposed.

After an excruciating long moment, he flips to the next page, and most of the pictures are of the four of them, together, with more emphasis on Neji than Lee, Gai, or even herself. The shadows of his face are done laboriously for each drawing, his eyes well-drawn.She knows this the best, because she spends most of time drawing her memory's eye of Neji. It never looks quite right.

The pictures continue, and they become more of Neji himself and more of Neji and Tenten together. His hand stops at the picture of Sasuke, what he sees as her best done portrait, and his fingers touch the graphite around the eyes, and he turns to see another picture of Sasuke. And then another and another, and they seem to be done with much vigor, with what they both can see as shining admiration, rather than just a representative of events as her other drawings consisting Neji and her.

These seem to be shining emotions and a clear picture, not of what small idea of him and her is stamped into the back of her eyes. His eyes seem to darken and suddenly there is the crackling sound of ripping paper and her heart stops. He shoves the book back into her hands, his fingers still clenching the wad of what is Sasuke, and he tells her he doesn't want it. Tenten keeps the tears at bay and runs out.

* * *

Tenten recognizes these feelings, with her tears plopping and being absorbed by the paper and she draws dark angry lines across the paper, long scribbles and harsh lines that can't be erased, and when the picture ends up being Neji, everything falls apart. She can hear the yell of Gai-sensei telling her that the bus is leaving soon, that Neji and Lee have already left.

She takes the sketchbook, and slowly, rips out each page one by one, seeing that all her pictures of Sasuke are already gone, letting them fly out the window into the wind. She stops to touch the more intimate pictures, and rips them more harshly than the others, crumpling them before throwing them out the window.

When there is yet only one page left in the book, she takes the only stub left of her pencils, and writes, 'I love you'. She folds this one, and allows it to flutter from her fingers. Neji isn't on the train ride home, and she isn't looking.

* * *

_Part One Done. (:_


	2. Real Life

_Second part, out of the Academy and now at college. (:_

* * *

**The Only Alliance**

Tenten gets used to her new flat near one of the best art colleges in the country, finding new friends like underclassmen Yamanaka Ino and even Neji's cousin and now worthless heir, Hyuuga Hinata. It hurts to look at Hinata's eyes that remind her so much of Neji, and she isn't shocked when Hinata tells her that Neji has succeeded her, even if he is illegitimate. Hiashi-sama sees power through craftily-welded hands, and allows his nephew to follow him. However, now Hinata cannot run the business, not that she particularly wanted to, but is allowed to spend her time doing whatever she pleases, so she took up art.

Tenten tells her she dislikes Neji greatly for being cold and unwelcoming, and that she did not enjoy her three years in his company. They both know it's a lie, but Hinata does not comment to it, and Tenten leaves it as is.

One part of her yearns for Neji to call her once, or e-mail her. There is no card on Christmas, or her birthday, or any holiday, not that she was expecting any. She has stayed in touch with Lee, even occasionally visiting the Academy with Lee to see Gai-sensei. It seems to her that Neji has cut ties with both of them.

Lee tells her that Neji is very much like that, and that they must reach out towards him. Lee has tried countless times, but Neji refused each invitation. Lee is convinced that only Tenten can bring a reunion about, but inside, Tenten is still hurting from the bitter refusal.

* * *

Then, six months into the new school year, as she is walking back towards her apartment, already starting a thumb sketch of her latest drawing, she fumbles with her books as she balances them with one hand. The March weather is comfortable but still chilly, and she wears a long skirt and droppy sweater. She hasn't been looking her best, but it has never been standing out. She's not part of the fashion department, so she can hide and just draw.

She moves her papers and pulls out a pencil, mind absorbed in the latest assignment. She looks up thoughtfully to think, and standing outside her apartment building is the long-limbed Neji. He looks so much more taller, staring up at her apartment building. A jacket is slung over his shoulder, the first three buttons of his fitted shirt unbuttoned. His hair is no longer tied loosely, but falls in inky strands over the canvas white of his shirt.

Her pencils and books clatter to the floor, and he looks over, eyes widening only a fraction. She stares at him for a good three seconds, before her skirt lifts in the wind, ticking her ankles, and she instantly drops down to pick up her stuff. She stares at the ground and fumbles, and her heart races. A dizzy spell hits her, and she pants softly, staring at the sidewalk chalk splattered beneath her.

When she finally stands, Neji is in front of her, one hand in his pocket, the other casually keeping the jacket in place over his shoulder. His lips forms her name and she gets lost in those eyes, as she can see, are nothing like Hinata's.

He tells her that it is on his way home, and that he is here to visit Hinata. Tenten nods, and Neji doesn't move to touch her, and she doesn't expect him to. Things have ended badly, there was only a fragile relationship that Tenten should not have tampered with. They checked and balanced each other out, but she pushed too hard, and Neji had abandoned her. And like a long-lost voyager seeing his homeland again, her emotions have no name.

She is at a loss of words to say at him, and she doesn't expect Neji to continue the conversation, he only stares openly at her. Her hand clutching the books against her chest run nervously over the cover, and she wants to lean over and feel his hair between her fingers.

The exchange ends when a fat raindrop lands on her hand suspended in air, and she flinches. Neji turns his head up to the sky and sighs, and Tenten gazes at the curve of his neck.

It is then when Yamanaka Ino comes to her rescue, running over with an umbrella. She glances at Tenten and instantly understands. She tells Neji that Hinata isn't home right now and that she is still at school finishing a project. Neji nods, and turns without a goodbye. Ino leads Tenten inside, and she brokenly tells her worried friend that she is alright.

She doesn't sleep that night, and makes sure to take the long way home everyday after that.

* * *

On her birthday, Hinata presents her a surprising gift, a large, leather-bound photo album, and she touches the cover, as it reminds her of her sketchbook from the Academy. She had burned the empty sketchbook, only a cover then, in the furnace when she returned home from her last day at the Konoha Academy. 

When she opens it, tears are in her eyes and Hinata is frightened that she has given her the wrong gift. The first page is a tiny note, scrawled in her sloppy handwriting and small darker dots where her tears had fallen.

_I love you._

She turns the page, and she already knows what is inside, they are her pictures, all of her sketches, in no particular order, except in the way Hinata pictured them to bee. They are placed meticulously, each page pressed without holes to seal the pictures in perfect tranquility. Some are wrinkled, others are in perfect condition, the ones she couldn't bear to crush, the ones she allowed to slip through her fingers out the window.

She sees the picture of child Neji, not on the first page, then she sees the picture of her and Neji colliding on the train that she has drawn months after the incident, then the picture of Lee's broken jaw. The most intimate pictures, slightly crumpled, are placed in the middle where the seam is bound, and Tenten feels exposed, even though she is only with Ino and Hinata who are quite aware of her feelings.

Hinata tells her she found them all outside on the ground the last day, and spent hours looking for them, and it seemed that she found them all, especially the note. Tenten turns all the way to the end, and sees the crumbled pictures of Sasuke.

She breaks down and cries. She tells herself not to cry, that she never cried when she was with Group 13, that crying over Neji is just like crying over spoiled milk. When she pulls herself together, she carefully shelves the photo album at the bottom of her bookshelf. She tells Hinata that this is the most sacred gift she has ever received, but cannot come up with an excuse as to why she puts it down there.

Hinata only smiles and tells her she already knows. They share something that night, two lonely girls facing the real world

It is then, with these pictures that she longs for back in her hands and shelved on the bottom of her bookcase, does she pluck up enough courage to stop running away from Neji and take the direct way home.

* * *

She promptly sees him the next day, and gives him a polite greeting. He breathes her name, and she tells him with a smile that is too bright that he can see through it, that she has to go, and excuses herself to climb the steps to her apartment with fake cheer. Before she leaves, Neji whispers happy birthday, and her hand stops jiggling the keys.

They walk in silence, and she already knows that he knows which apartment is hers. She allows him into her modest flat, and hurries to the kitchen to make tea, her voice miraculously not breaking.

She finds him later standing in her work room, gazing at the drawings. None of them are about her past, of him, Lee, or Gai. They are all still-lifes, or random objects drawn with thorough accuracy, analyzed in front of her. Nothing is drawn from her mind's eye, all her work devoid of emotion.

She tells him as she hands him the hot mug of tea, that she gave up drawing models from her memory. Then Neji fishes in his pocket, and pulls out a small bag, giving it to her wordlessly. She finds it to be a necklace, with a pretty diamond charm.

It isn't overly romantic, just an obligation as ex-classmates to give her a present on her birthday, usually, it was just more art supplies that she cherished and rarely used. It looks expensive, and her voice rises an octave and tells him she can't accept it.

He says that girls should like things like that, and she reassures him in a small voice that she does like it. Neji stares down at her and tells her to keep it and she can only murmur her thanks.

He looks away, and she asks if he would like a tour, trying to be hospitable. He tells her it's not necessary, and that he should be going. She nods, and walks him to the door, but he stops, his back to her and she can feel that he is scrutinizing the door. Then, he turns towards her, leans over and presses the lightest of kisses on her cheek.

Later, she puts on the necklace, and tells others that it is a little trinket she found at a flea market. It will be their secret.

* * *

Her first date is a blind date set up by Ino, and she finds out with shock that it is Uchiha Sasuke. The dinner is excruciatingly long and awkward, since neither have any attraction towards each other. The planes on his face are the same, and she ends up studying the dips and crevices to further help her drawings than actually attempt at any romance. She tugs on the low-cut shirt whenever Sasuke looks away, and fixes the skirt. Ino had picked out the outfit earlier, and Tenten had merely agreed, as she did for everyone on this date.

The way she smiles at him and places her hand on his are merely for show, because she can see Ino peek not so secretly at them two booths down.

That night, Sasuke walks her home, and it is raining. The noble blood in him places his jacket over her drenched shoulders, and it reminds her of Neji. She ignores it, and she tells herself the wine is getting a little to her head. She kisses him steadily at the door, presenting him her first kiss for dealing with such an uncomfortable night. When Sasuke has descended the stairs, his jacket thrown over his shoulder just the way Neji does, she listens to his footsteps disappear before she heads over to Hinata's room two doors down.

It is there and through Ino that she finds out that Neji had been watching them the whole time.

* * *

Neji doesn't mention it or care about it, or at least she thinks he doesn't, and his visits are become even more common. She rarely bothers to invite him in, or even bother him in general. She doesn't wear the necklace when she sees him, it is usually under the layers of her clothes, the pendant hanging right over her heart. 

He is visiting Hinata after all, not her, who has been increasingly agitating Hiashi for not becoming the strong heiress she should be, even if she is stripped from that title. He sometimes nods to her, and she sometimes says his name in greeting. If she feels up to it, she attempts small talk, but that is about it.

When Hinata falls sick through stress and pressure from school and from her family and from her recent heartbreak about Naruto, her frail body coughing fits that make her whole body shake, Neji watches solemnly, almost guiltily.

Tenten quietly offers Neji to stay at her place for a while until Hinata gets better. Neji glances at his sickly cousin and can only agree. She insists he can sleep on her bed, but he settles for her couch, and not much is exchanged.

Neji wakes up early to go to the university on the other side of the city, and she wakes up along with him, to fix him breakfast. She apologizes that it isn't so good, but Neji eats all of it, and he brings home takeout every night. Before he leaves, she presses an extra key into his hand.

* * *

Neji watches her draw. 

It is a simple request and she can't say no, and by the dim light in her work room, she sets the lone apple up in front of her. Neji pulls up a chair, and gazes at the way her hand moves. She squints at the still life, before sketching the lines gracefully, curving her pencil expertly.

He asks her if she'll go back to drawing people. She shakes her head, shading in the bottom half of the apple. He doesn't speak after that, and Tenten finds herself working well into the night, but Neji says he isn't tired and continues watching intently.

Her eyes begin to get heavy, her limbs are exhausted, but he asks her to continue to draw, he changes the still life in front of er and she draws more, until he changes the still life to an alarm clock that she falls asleep against the table, the pencil loosening in her hand. She wakes up the next morning in her own bed.

* * *

The first time Neji himself attempts to draw, she comes in with warm tea for the cold day, and is shocked to see him sitting there, staring focusedly at the paper. He grips the pencil too tightly, and the point cracks as he places it on the paper. 

Tenten giggles from the door frame, for the first time that he's heard in a long time, and he turns around, looking as embarrassed as his emotions will let him. She moves towards him, dragging the chair over and gently placing her smaller hand around his. He visibly stiffens.

She applies firm pressure on his fingers, telling him to relax and only when he does, she moves his arm in a circular motion. She presses harder and so does the line of his pencil, as they slowly worked in the curves of the apple. His hand is limp in her hands and they feel strong and rather large, warm and reliable.

When they both look at the finished work with fascination, Tenten asks him to sign the bottom and then hangs it up. Neji stares at it and she can see the shadows of a smile on his lips. It makes her happier seeing this.

* * *

She comes home one day and the air feels heavy against her heart. She calls that she's home, and she slips out of her shoes and finds Neji sitting on her couch, flipping through the pages of the leather bound photo album, Hinata's gift. As Neji flips through the pages, his eyes refusing to meet hers, he tells her that this is his.

Suddenly the harsh reality crashes down, that Hinata has lied to her, saying that it was she who found the pages on the ground, but it had been Neji, who missed the train to collect each and every one of them. It is Neji who bought the album, and carefully placed the sketches into them, and poor sweet Hinata, who went and stole it from him to return to the rightful owner, because that is what she thought is right.

Neji turns back to the first page, where the words "I love you" are scrawled, and he traces them with a long finger, before shutting the book. He is angry, and she can feel it, and she gets the chills when he looks at her. He moves towards her, and she backs into the wall, and flinches one last time until she's pushed hard against it. Her face is in his hands, and he's grabbing too hard, one knee pressed between her legs, and she feels cold-blooded terror and hot-burning ache in her heart. He angles his head slightly and she closes her eyes as her heart races and her lips form a soft 'no'. She can feel his breath mingling with her own erratic one, and then he drops his hands back to his sides and steps away.

He asks to watch her draw again after a long while, his voice calmer, and she has nothing else to say but go to her study room and draw. She draws from memory now, the first time in a while, and she draws the day after her birthday, when Neji presents her the gift. Her body is angled awkwardly, his frame long and sturdy. She feels his hand cover hers, halting her pencil to a stop.

He gently turns her towards him, taking her chin in his hand and presses a chaste kiss to her lips without hesitation. Their first kiss together leads to a second and third, their awkwardness dissolving into passionate embrace until he suddenly stops and does not continue. She doesn't pressure him to.

* * *

Hinata feels better the next day, leaving Neji no reason to stay, and she doesn't ask him to, but returns the photo album to him. He leaves again in the presence of both of them, and in front of his cousin, he kisses her again, something he refrains since the night before. Tenten blushes, and as they watch Neji's back, Tenten confesses everything. 

After contemplation, Hinata tells her that Neji is scared of rejection, wanting and needing ever since he saw the sketches to have her, to have someone love him. She warns her though, that as soon as Tenten allows him, Neji will never let go, that he will grow even more possessive, even angrier than that night he saw her with Sasuke.

When he comes back biweekly the few weeks after Hinata's recovery, he doesn't kiss her. She can tell what he is thinking, what he wants to ask her, but he doesn't so she doesn't. He merely comes to watch her draw, back to still-life, and leaves at night after she is asleep.

He comes the next week with a brand-new sketchbook, exactly identical to her old one from the Academy. Inside, written in his elegant font, he asks her to continue drawing like she used to.

He stops visiting after that, but Tenten continues to draw, and this time, it is only him.

* * *

During her graduation from the art university, Neji comes and stands in the back. He asks to take her out to dinner alone, and she can only accept. She changes into something prettier, pulling out the buns in her hair, but staring at her reflection, she cannot live up to his own beauty. 

She holds the sketchbook in her hands, waiting for Neji to come, mindlessly going through the pages without bothering to fix any mistakes. When he does come, as she did five years ago, she thrusts the sketchbook into his hands, turning away from him nervously. He stares at it, and she can read his eyes when he looks back at her, they are filled with longing and he sets the book on the table and brings her out to dinner.

It is rather awkward, because Tenten lacks anything to say but Neji seems content watching her like this, with her hair down and eyes downcast. Tenten drinks too much wine in desperation to start a conversation, and her head is spinning when Neji helps her out of the restaurant, and on their way home, he tells her she looks beautiful with her hair down. She has seen him smile more in this one night than she can ever remember.

Tenten blushes at this comment, and Neji opens the door for her, picking up the sketchbook on the way to the couch, Tenten sitting in his lap. They look through the pictures together, his hands so long and big compared to hers, and the warmth of his fingers entangled with his.

He asks questions about it, and she explains it the best as she can, trying to ignore the low breathing that is brushing her neck. Halfway through, he shuts the book, gingerly placing it on the counter, and burying his face into her neck, moving her so he is towering over her. He grips her wrists tightly and his lips send shudders through her skin before they are pressed on her lips, and his tongue is begging for permission and his hand is threaded through her hair and he's hungrily taking as much body contact as possible.

She pants breathlessly when he forces himself to stop, his shoulders shaking as his hands are gripping the arch of her waist, the other leaning on the arm of the couch. He looks at her with so much desire, and he warns her the same way Hinata has, that if she allows him, he will never let her leave him, he will keep her too close to him.

She smiles back at him, and nods.

* * *

She regrets this the next morning, when she wakes with Neji's arm around her waist, his breath warm against the crook of her shoulder, her arms around him, enveloping him in her body heat, her still wearing the slim skirt and shirt from the night before. He is too close, now unseparable from his heart. What if she can't see him after this? She doesn't know if she'll be able to survive.

He wakes up when she stirs, and he smiles at her, lifting himself up slightly to kiss her.

She struggles, and his kiss becomes hungry, and when he finally breaks, looking down at her quizzically, she looks away breathless. He frowns and leans towards her ear as she stiffens and asks if she regrets it. She doesn't answer and he pulls himself off her, picking up the sketchbook to look through it on the opposite single chair.

She watches him and he doesn't meet her gaze, as his hand stops at the picture where he has kissed her for the first time. He stares at it for a long time, and then he finally stands, and tells her that he will not give her up, not now and not ever. It doesn't matter if she'll push him away, because she gave herself to him, so he will keep her.

He comes back the next day, and the next, and she asks him why he does. He tells her that because she has loved him through it all and he is merely returning a favor.

She tells him that is a bad reason, but he ignores it, moving closer to kiss her again. She freaks out at this, and he watches her for a long time, before telling her that he won't do it again if it really upsets her.

She looks up at him and smiles, unable to see the fighting going on his mind. She figures if Neji is willing to take the risk, a man who never would take risks when the chances were below his favor, she could too. Her arms wrap around his neck and she tells him to kiss her _now_. Neji obliges.

* * *

When she moves towards an empty studio overlooking the city through large warehouse-like windows, her apartment is emptier than her dorm room at the Academy and the apartment in college. There is a small kitchen room, where she can cook meals and sit at a table only big enough for two people. There is a bedroom that has only a futon and a dresser. There is not much else, not even proper lighting. 

She sets up her art desk and the messy sketches over the walls, and Neji only watches her work. When she can't reach to put the last of her drawings, he leans over her to place it up, trapping her between his arms.

She turns and he stares down at her and tells her he wants to live here with her, and eventually, he wants to take her away to a beautiful apartment only for them.

She reasons that it won't help him commute to his job, but she doesn't tell him that she picked this studio because it is particularly farther away from his internship at the Hyuuga Corporation.

He says he doesn't care, and tells her those three words. Her eyes widen and her heart thumps painfully, as his forearms travel down the wall to end besides her face, fingers curling into the wall as he asks if he can kiss her. She allows him to.

* * *

His uncle looks so much like Neji, it unnerves her. He has introduced her as his fiancée, something she hasn't agreed to until the day before. She wonders why Neji is rushing about getting married. 

Hiashi asks what she does for a living, and she tells him she's an artist. His eyebrows rise and Neji moves a possessive hand over her waist, with much notice from the Hyuuga President. Hiashi stares at Neji, who is glaring back, and who is telling his uncle that he doesn't care what profession she's in, because he _will_ marry her, despite that he promises her the night before that their engagement will be a long one.

Hiashi gazes at Tenten under a view that is even more uncomfortable than Neji's and turns away, telling Neji he does what he must. Neji's hands tighten as he excuses himself from his uncle, and soon as they are away from sight and hearing, he apologizes.

Tenten doesn't understand why, and it is the first time she hears him utter those words. Their engagement does last a long time, she is glad to realize.

* * *

She stares at Neji, whose eyes are closed as he sleeps serenely on his stomach, one arm seemingly always around her and the other tangled in his hair. 

She moves slightly, and trails out of bed, shivering at her naked form as Neji frowns, still asleep.

She glances back at him, and pads quietly to her studio space, curling onto the stool and picking up the blunt pencil. She closes her eyes, remembering how Neji looks asleep, and her pencils draw the planes of his back only half-covered by the blanket, hair strewn over the white pillow and the sheets. She smiles, drawing in the folds of the sheets, then the long fingers, making sure his arm is extended out and that she is not in the picture.

She jumps slightly when Neji and the bed covers wrap around her, giving her the warmth she was always looking for.

* * *

_Note:_ _This is a long one. Sorry. __ ; Oh dear, look at all the run-on sentences, __gigantour__ paragraphs, stupid title, and suffocating fluff.__And__ I did a semi-high school AU __fic. __Ack._


	3. Moments

_For 2007-2008 NejiTen LJ Festival. It's sort of little scenes and moments from The Only Alliance, so I decided to add it onto here. (:_

* * *

**Tree ;**** Dove**

She had been up in a tree. Hands crossed over his chest, he raised his head, irritated, straining his neck to see her in the branches. They were in one of the gardens farther away from the main buildings, and Neji didn't even know how he found her here.

"Tenten, you are no longer a child. You can't climb trees whenever it suits your fancy. Especially since you're wearing a skirt."

Her legs dangled underneath her, and she leaned over to antagonize him further and stuck her tongue out at him, straightening her skirt. He let out an indignant snort and she lifted the binoculars from her lap, ignoring him.

He grumbled, and he glared up at her, "Gai won't be pleased."

"Gai will only praise my youth, Neji. You're getting old down there."

"What are you even looking for?"

"If you came up here, I'd let you see."

And that was when fifteen-year-old Hyuuga Neji found himself trying to find space on the cramped branches of the tree.

"Your legs are too long," Tenten complained, swatting his knee away from her. He glared and said irritably, "What are you looking for?"

She passed him the binoculars, and their hands met briefly. She pulled away too quickly, and he held the heavy binoculars with one hand. She smiled, her mouth curling into one dimple, and she pointed to the branches of another tree. He gazed through the lenses, and he saw a nest, where two baby birds chirped plaintively.

"It's a bird nest."

Tenten nodded enthusiastically. Neji frowned, "This is a waste of time…"

"But Neji, these are _doves_."

Neji stared at her and remarked, "They aren't white."

She rolled her eyes at his ignorant comment, "Not all doves are white! I think these are oriental turtle doves."

"So?"

"Well, oriental turtle doves are usually from southern Japan, not from up here! I wonder where their mother is…"

The chirping was added by another and Tenten grabbed the binoculars from Neji's hand. Neji thought she looked rather silly, since Tenten had a habit of biting her lip when she was concentrating, and she whispered, "Oh, their mother is back."

"I'm going down now," Neji said, and Tenten nodded, handing him the binoculars as they made their way down. Neji held out his hand for the last jump, and Tenten took it gratefully.

"I hope they can adapt safely here in this new environment," she mused.

Neji glanced down at his companion, and he smiled, "Just the way we did?"

She chuckled, repeating, "Just the way we did."

* * *

**Wine**

The first sip went down warm and bitter down her throat, and she wondered how this could possibly be enjoyable, or why the Academy was offering it to underage students. She picked up the wine flute as elegantly as she could, since she was one of the few scholarship students in their year. Lee was sitting next to her, sipping at his water. Gai-sensei had already proved Lee could not handle the least amount of alcohol, and was a complete violent embarrassment that almost sexually harassed _her_.

It was then when Neji had introduced her to his younger cousin, Hinata, for the first time. She was a pleasant petite girl with the same eyes and a lost expression on her face. Tenten had smiled kindly towards the younger girl, and Neji moved carefully around her, one hand ready to catch her should she fall.

Tenten later asked Lee, when she had drank both his and Gai's flutes later, if Neji was in love with his own cousin. Lee told her that's not possible, but Tenten was convinced, and glanced at Neji across the long expanse of the ballroom. His family was an important contributor of money and resources to the Academy, and it was his duty to accompany them as a student of the Academy.

She grumbled, and Lee reassured her that Neji liked independent girls that he would be confident would never stray from his side.

Tenten didn't remember any of this the next morning, and Neji looked exceptionally angry when he needed one hand ready to catch her should she fall from her mild hangover.

* * *

**Call**

When Ino called Hyuuga Neji to tell him about Tenten's blind date with Uchiha Sasuke, he had not been at the least bit mature about it.

"Hello, Hinata-sama, is everything well?"

"Neji! It's Ino!"

"Goodbye."

"Wait! There's important news to tell you-"

"If it's from you, then it is not very important."

"-concerning Tenten."

"You have ten seconds."

Ino snorted, "I can say it in five – Tenten's going on a date with Uchiha Sasuke."

There was a silence, and Ino could scarcely hear his breathing. Hinata looked worried and said quietly, "I don't think it was a good idea…"

"Put Hinata on the phone."

There was no suffix to her name, and Hinata's eyes widened as Ino motioned the phone at her.

"Hinata," Neji grit out, "Why is…"

There was a pause, and they both knew it was hard for Neji to say her name.

"Why is she… doing that with Uchiha?"

Ino rolled her eyes, the moody stubborn tone in the man's voice evident. Hinata covered her mouth from giggling and said too late, "Well, T-Tenten-chan hasn't really been s-seeing other g-guys…"

Neji's voice is much calmer, less brooding when he interrupts, "You can't force her to do something she does not want to."

"B-but she agreed to it."

Neji was silent again, and Ino could practically feel the violent aura from the speaker. Hinata was getting the goose bumps.

"N-N-Neji?"

There was a disconnected tone then, and Ino laughed maliciously, "The dude's jealous."

Hinata frowned, her nose scrunching up, "I don't think this is such a good idea to get N-Neji involved, Ino."

"It makes it much more fun!" Ino giggled, phoning Neji again.

"What."

"Meet me outside Hinata's apartment at 7:15. Sasuke's going to come and pick her up at 7:00, so we have to leave a little later."

"I'm not going."

"You're really letting Tenten go on a _date_ with the _Uchiha Sasuke_?"

"It doesn't matter what she does with her life, I am not part of it."

Ino mouthed 'you want to be' into the receiver and sighed audibly, "Look, it'll be Tenten's first date, and we're just going to make sure things go as planned."

He didn't respond, and Ino continued, "Dress nicely… oh and please restrain any urges to kill Sasuke until after the date. Bye bye!"

Ino hung up then, leaving Neji with nothing to say but listen to the disconnected tone.

* * *

**Rings**

When she met Hyuuga Hiashi, there was no engagement ring on her hand. That was because Neji had proposed to her the night before, suddenly and without proper Hyuuga thinking, when the sweat was drying on their backs and the blankets only partially covering themselves. Hiashi saw this as soon as Neji introduced her as his fiancée, but did not comment on it. Tenten was nervous, and although rather experienced with dealing with Neji, Hiashi seemed sterner, more dangerous, more cold-hearted.

Tenten suddenly became scared that Neji will turn out to be like this man. It would take a long time for her to realize that Hiashi was not as cold-hearted as she thought him to be, but for now, her thumb was anxiously pressing against her bare ring finger.

After the gruesome experience was over, Neji pulled Tenten out of the Hyuuga estate, into the busy market. It was there when she was eating dango and chatting with Ino that Neji had come striding in, brought her to an empty side room of the dango shop, and properly slipped a ring on her finger.

* * *

**Eggs**

In front of him was a slightly lopsided omelette.

He didn't know how well Tenten cooked, but she must at least be better than anything Gai-sensei could make. They weren't expected to learn how to cook (it was a preposterous notion, Hyuugas had servants for domestic chores like that) but Tenten had independently chosen the course outside their group with Kurenai-sensei.

Neji raised his brows, and Tenten, clad in an apron, grinned. One hand holding a spatula rested on her hip, and some food-related goop slide down her cheek. She wiped at it impatiently with her forearm, and smiled, "Go on, try it."

Neji hesitantly poked at it with a fork. Tenten said it was an American recipe, and she really wanted to try it, and since she managed to make it, he had to eat it with American utensils.

He took one bite and then pushed the plate away. Tenten's smile dropped instantly, and she sat down across from him, her head resting on a floury hand and she looked dejectedly at the plate. A twang of guilt hit him, and he watched the way she bit her lower lips and sighed.

"Lee said it tasted good…"

Neji frowned, and Tenten leaned over to take the plate, sighing, "I guess I'll give it to him then."

His hand reached out and gripped the hem of her apron. Tenten turned, beaming at him.

He took a breath, and finished the rest of the omelette.

* * *

**Swim**

Swim class with Gai-sensei and Lee was rather unbearable. Neji didn't like water in the first place, but seeing the two in matching trunks (thankfully, it was not tighter than that) made him detest it even more.

He spotted Tenten running towards the pool, completely passing him and stopped near the lanes where the two idiots were fooling around.

"Ah… it seems like I forgot to pack my swimsuit…" She looked pretty dismal. Instantly Gai splashed out of the water, heading towards Neji. Unnerved, Neji glared back, only for Gai to rummage in his bag next to Neji's seat. He pulled out a two-piece grass-green bikini.

Neji almost smiled at the fact Gai carried bikinis with him, but his teacher pushed the swimsuit towards Tenten and motioned for her to put it on in the ladies restroom.

It was the first time Neji saw Tenten half-naked, and it was etched in his mind days later.

* * *

**Maid**

Living with Tenten wasn't easy, since she liked to throw things all over the floor. As an artist, she claimed that she needed her environment messy and spontaneous, half of which Neji believed. He considered getting a maid, but Tenten told him that such a small studio didn't need one.

Instead, she insisted they make it a game, and whoever cleaned up a room the slowest would have to wear a maid's costume. Neji didn't particularly dislike the idea, since he rather enjoyed Tenten in the maid costume (although he preferred her without any costume… or clothes in that matter). He was a rather efficient cleaner, so he mostly won.

But like all things, and due to underhanded tricks, Tenten sometimes pulled out a victory, and she was forced not to speak a word of it. Secretly, she wanted to be the only one to see and know that Neji looked better as a maid that she did.

* * *

**Queen**

When Tenten was sick, Neji pulled all stops out; he raised the futon, stayed home from work, and only left her side to make more broth or to fetch more pillows. He would watch her sleep in desperation, and made sure she didn't kick her blankets off during her fever.

Tenten told Ino and Hinata that Neji treated her like a queen. They found it hard to believe, and Tenten herself found it rather unbelievable. Neji wasn't really one to show affection, even to her sometimes, and he usually left early in the morning with a distant look in his eyes.

Tenten found herself wanting to get sick more often, so Neji would be there by her side all the time. She was lonely as an artist sometimes, working long hours with her own schedule but she had to meet a deadline, and sometimes she yearned to see him.

When Neji found out about her little secret, he wasn't angry at all. One morning when she wasn't sick, he stayed home and they spent the whole day together, and Tenten cherished it. He told her he would always treat her as a queen that she deserved, because she was his everything.

* * *

**King**

"Here… Neji," her voice was timid and awkward at the end of the ramble, and he stared down at the leather-bound book, held in trembling hands. It was the last time he would see her, possibly, forever. The Academy days were over, and he had to go to the Fire University, while she went to the art college that she belonged. He couldn't bring her along, she wouldn't like it.

When he opened it, his heart skipped a beat. Staring up at him was a younger version of himself. Tenten was always a skilled artist, and lines of his face were dark and devoid of innocent and he felt like this is what he looked like, this is what he must have looked like, that dark rainy night when his father died. And Tenten wanted to draw him, she wanted to show him what he really was.

He felt strong, he felt that this one person cared enough when he himself believed that no one was able to care for him.

He felt like a king.

* * *

**Flute  
**

Their wedding day is full of flutes because it was Tenten's favorite instrument. She loved the high notes that sounded like the wind, and the melodies that were soft and full in her ears. She looked beautiful in the white wedding dress, and Neji's ears lost sound of the flutes around him, or the applauding of the crowd, because all he could see, all he could sense was the woman in front of him.

He decided that this was a choice that he would never regret and that he would always cherish, and as he slipped the ring onto her finger, the flutes stopped their song and their friends cheered louder as he leaned in to kiss her not for the first time.

* * *

**Drum**

Neji decided one afternoon that they had to move out of the small studio, into a larger apartment complex. Tenten had been reluctant, but Neji touched her stomach tentatively, where the bulge was still growing, and told her it was necessary. She had protested, and said they could turn her drawing room into their child's room, but Neji refused, reasoned that she needed a space to draw.

In the end, Tenten had agreed, and Neji promised they would still keep the studio for now, until their child would grow up, and want to leave them, then he could live there, in his parents old studio. Tenten was absolutely positive their baby was a boy, by the way it kicked constantly like a drumbeat (even though Neji reasoned _she_ probably did that in _her_ mother's womb, and Tenten didn't disagree).

They packed their bags and moved to a place with a quaint neighborhood and a nearby park, because Tenten liked taking walks and feel her son's kicking match the pace of her walking.

She would constantly tell Neji that their son will grow up to be a drummer, the way he kept his rhythm inside his mother's womb. Neji disagreed, and said their son would be a strong leader, that he was kicking so early on (but she had been pregnant for a while).

But they both decided that they would not choose the route for their son, that he will find his dreams, and the love of his life, by his own ambition.

* * *

_Notes: This is probably the end. Thanks for reading ! (:_


End file.
